The Soviet Union
WHAT WAS THE SOVIET UNION AND HOW DID IT COME TO EXIST?
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), more commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a vast country that spanned much of northern Eurasia. For most of its existence during the 20th century, it was a multinational federation of 15 Union Republics and numerous subdivisions, each based on ethnicity and culture. The largest by far was Russia, where the Soviet capital, Moscow, was located. As a self-proclaimed “socialist state”, the Soviet Union became the template for other such countries and served as the fulcrum for communism throughout the world.
The origins of the Soviet Union lay in the October Revolution of 1917 when Marxist leader, Vladimir Lenin,
